News and Media Releases

On 19 November 2018, Papua New Guinean national Koloney Bama, 52, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in the Cairns Supreme Court for multiple counts of trying to smuggle drugs and the drug precursor ephedrine into Australia. He was also sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for one count of people smuggling.

A retired 69-year-old Melbourne Man, John McNally appeared before the County Court of Victoria today and was sentenced four years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of two and a half years for defrauding and deceiving the Commonwealth for financial advantage. The total proven amount defrauded was $243,875.26

On 31 August, Neil Andrew Simpson was found guilty of a range of offences related to importing and exporting reptiles. He received a total effective sentence of 1 year 10 months and 27 days imprisonment to be released immediately on the condition that he be of good behaviour for the period of the sentence.

On 3 August, Paul Lee Dinniss, 81, was found guilty of using a carriage service to access and transmit child exploitation material, and possessing child exploitation material. On each of the five Commonwealth charges, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently, but released on recognisance to be of good behaviour for five years.

Guilty of laundering $745,050, 48-year-old Linda Nguyen was today sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment. She is eligible for release on recognisance after 9 months, and subject to a good behaviour condition for a further 5 months following release.

Sydney man Salim Mehajer, the former deputy mayor of Auburn in Western Sydney, was today sentenced in the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney, to 21 months’ imprisonment, to be released after serving 11 months. This followed the Court’s finding in April this year that he had committed 77 offences of electoral fraud.

Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Securency International Pty Ltd (Securency) employee Clifford Gerathy was today sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for 6 months, after pleading guilty to his involvement in dishonestly recording a payment of $79,502 made by Securency to its Malaysian agent Abdul Kayum in 2006.

A Victorian-based registered tax agent, Brendan Harty was today sentenced to seven years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of four years and nine months in the County Court of Victoria. Mr Harty pleaded guilty to multiple counts of dishonestly obtaining $912,637.00 and attempting to obtain a further $46,029.00.

On 14 December 2017, 45-year-old Stephen Michael Remiens, was sentenced in the District Court of Queensland to two years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to child pornography offences.

Suspended Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer, 46-year-old Benjamin Hampton, was today sentenced by the District Court of New South Wales to a term of imprisonment of 22 months, to be released after serving a period of 11 months. Mr Hampton pleaded guilty to dishonestly receiving approximately $7,000 in cash as a reward for releasing information from a secure AFP database.

A Nigerian national, 34-year-old Jackson Igwebuike was sentenced on 25 October 2017, after being found guilty by a jury of importing 8.5 kilograms of methamphetamine into Australia.

Igwebuike was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to 10 and a half years imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of six and a half years—including the two years he had already served since his arrest.

On 17 February 2017 Mr Raymond Clifford Osborne’s criminal convictions were overturned and he was acquitted of all charges by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.